Syria: What should health care professionals do?

In Syria, inability to access healthcare has become part of daily life for millions of people. The deliberate targeting of healthcare as a weapon of war is a shocking reality

Medical students’ views of clinical environments.

Background: Monitoring the quality of clinical learning environments (CLEs) is immensely important in medical education. Objective indicators of the quality of the CLE can be used to measure learner perceptions and to inform educational improvements; however, many established tools were not designed for use in clinical settings and are not theoretically grounded. Our aim was to apply a new tool to the new context of a UK setting to explore the perceptions of senior medical students in a number of different CLEs. “Monitoring the quality of clinical learning environments is immensely important in medical education”. Methods: The four-factor Undergraduate Clinical Education Environment Measure (UCEEM) was translated into English, and used to gather fina-year medical students’ perceptions of four different specialties they had rotated through: Emergency Medicine (EM), General Surgery (GS), Medicine for the Elderly (ME), and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G). The UCEEM was distributed in paper form. Students were asked to complete it in relation to two of the four specialties. Results/findings: Year-5 medical students (n = 132) returned a completed UCEEM. For opportunities to learn in and through work experience EM was reported the most positively. ME was perceived to be the most prepared for student entry. Students reported being well received by staff and made to feel part of the team within GS, EM and ME, but less so in O&G. Discussion: UCEEM appears to be a useful tool for evaluating medical student perceptions of CLEs. Theoretically robust, UCEEM is straightforward to administer and to score. It has the potential to be used by time-pressured educators to collect baseline and comparative data for evaluation and improvement purposes

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic, persistent, life-long inflammatory disease. Psoriasis is an inflammatory disease presenting with red scales on the skin, most commonly at the elbows and knees. At the moment there is no complete cure for this disease but there are a wide range of therapies which can control it, and the patients can live a normal life. However this brings on the patients an economic burden, which increases in proportion with the severity of the diseasepeer-reviewe

‘It would not be tolerated in any other profession except medicine’: survey reporting on undergraduates’ exposure to bullying and harassment in their first placement year

OBJECTIVES: To determine the extent to which undergraduate medical students experience (and/or witness) bullying and harassment during their first year on full-time placements and to compare with new General Medical Council (GMC) evidence on bullying and harassment of doctors in training.SETTING: A UK university offering medical and nursing undergraduate programmes.PARTICIPANTS: 309 medical and nursing undergraduate students with 30-33?weeks' placement experience (123 medical students and 186 nursing students); overall response rate: 47%.PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: (A) students' experience of bullying and harassment; (B) witnessing bullying and harassment; (C) actions taken by students; (D) comparison of medical and nursing students' data.RESULTS: Within 8?months of starting clinical placements, a fifth of medical and a quarter of nursing students reported experiencing bullying and harassment. Cohorts differ in the type of exposure reported and in their responses. Whereas some nursing students follow incidences with query and challenge, most medical students acquiesce.CONCLUSIONS: Bullying and harassment of medical (and nursing) students-as well as witnessing of such incidents-occurs as soon as students enter the clinical environment. This augments evidence published by the GMC in its first report on undermining of doctors in training (December 2013). The data suggest differences between nursing and medical students in how they respond to such incidents.<br/

Stress among medical students of Gorgan (South East of Caspian Sea), Iran

Objective: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of psychological stress and association between the levels of stress and study variables among Gorgan medical students. Materials and methods: All three year medical students (129 basic sciences students) in Gorgan Faculty of Medicine, Golestan University of medical Sciences, were asked to complete the Kessler 10 questionnaire. Results: The findings showed mild, moderate and severe stress among 26.22%, 20.50% and 14.75% study subjects. 39.35% of medical students had no stress. There was statistically significant association between year of study and stress levels (p= 0.040). Conclusion: The results indicate that there is a decrease in the psychological health of first year medical students. Provided that stress management courses are organised by medical schools, when the students arrive, they will cope up with the stress in coming years. These courses may reduce the negative effects of stress on medical students. By providing such courses and reducing stress level, medical students may improve their medical education

Stress and depression among veterinary medical students

While existing literature suggests that professional students (e.g., medical, dental, law, nursing, etc.) experience high levels of stress and depression, the experiences of veterinary medical students have been less well examined. The purpose of this study was to explore the levels of stress and depression among veterinary medical students and to examine the relationship between these variables. Study participants were 1,245 veterinary medical students from North America. The findings provide support for the assertion that veterinary medical students experience high levels of stress and depression. Results also indicated that there is a correlation between stress and depression for veterinary medical students and that female students experience higher levels of stress and depression than their male counterparts.Accepted manuscrip

Computer laboratory in medical education for medical students

Five generations of the second year students at the Zagreb University School of Medicine were interviewed through an anonymous questionnaire on their use of personal computers, Internet, computer laboratories and computer-assisted education in general. Results show advance in using the information and communication technology by medical students during the period from 1998/99 to 2002/03. However, their positive opinion about computer laboratory depends on installed capacities: the better technology in the computer laboratory – the more positive opinion of it